Yello... Sorry I havent written in a while, its back to college you see and i'm snowed under with wo...
Yello... Sorry I havent written in a while, its back to college you see and i'm snowed under with work. I'll be back soon!!
Member since:10.05.2001
Reviews:33
Members who trust:7
South West Trains run most of the trains in the south west, as the name suggests conveniently. When the network was privatised it was taken over by Stagecoach and since then i would have to say that the service has got worse.
Weymouth is a small town that is surrounded by hills and only has one proper road out that is always ful of traffic. This makes the trains the only way out of the town without getting stuck in traffic jams. I am one of those "weird" people that dont own a car, so trains are the only way for me to travel over a distance.
*The trains The trains that south west trains operate vary between routes. On the Weymouth to Waterloo route that i live on it is mostly served by about 10year old electric trains (class 442 for all you trainspoters). These trains arent doing bad for there age and they have all in the last year been refurbished to give them a new colour scheme. From the outside the trains look a lot better in there red, orange, blue and white livery but it all stops as soon as you walk in the door. You are welcomed by red seat covers that constantly annoy you throughout the journey (they used to be a calming blue). Another change on the trains is that fact that at the end of the carriages there used to be large paintings of some of the locations on the route. Although they werent that good it gave you something to look at and made it look more personallised to the route. Its all change now with large blue pictures of things like flowers. A whole second of enjoyment there.
Sometimes these trains are replaced by the old slam door kind of train but this is becoming more uncommon. More new trains have been ordered by the company. Some of the other routes have different kinds of trains on them, like the 158's to penzance. I've never been on one of these so i cant really comment.
*Comfort In the middle of the carriage you get a large table with four seats round it. There are about 6 of these in each carriage. Each train has about 4 passenger carrages. The rest of the train is full of double seats with a fold down table. The leg room aint bad but it aint enough for a decent stretch. All the seats have arm rests and are quite comfortable for a short journey, if your going any longer take a walk to the buffet (remembering not to buy anything) and back.
*The buffet The buffet as you would expect from a train company is a rip off. The coffee is bad and the food dont look that good either. Get the old thermos out if your going on a long journey.
*The service I would have to say that the people that work for them are always kind and they always make apologies when your train runs late. The trains on the route always leave weymouth on time (it is at the end of the line) but it is a different matter when you are coming back. Usually by southampton it has got some kind of delay added to it.
*Prices South West Trains recently put there prices up and it now costs £16 to get from weymouth to southampton off peak. I dont really think that this is very good value given the incredible amount of people that this train usually carries. It is regularry packed with people with many standing up.
Well stagecoach were awarded the franchise for this route again and are promising more new trains and even some new train stations for weymouth so they could be getting better, but dont expect anything more than you would have got from british rail.
I took the train once when I went to the Isle of Wight (oh, that was a long time ago, 1986). From what I remember, it was a comfortable ride due to the nice panorama along the way. Choo-choo, keep on riding... Alex
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Jul 16th, 2001
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